"Hello, Vince."

Vince had just pulled up onto his driveway and opened the car door when he heard his father greet him from under the car he was working on from the open garage door. His father owned an auto shop, but this was his own car and it had been acting up a bit and decided he could just work on it here. He had actually helped Vince practically rebuild the car he drove, though one wouldn't guess that immediately if they looked at his car. Contrary to last night, his dad was actually decent. He just had occasional...episodes. It was why Vince swore to himself he'd never drink a cup of alcohol ever in his life.

"Hey, dad," he replied quietly. "Sorry I'm late."

"Where have you been?" his father demanded, rolling himself out from under the car before standing up and grabbing a rag. He started wiping his hands off. "You're more than minutes late, it's been an hour and a half. I texted you to come here before school ended, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I know," he muttered, shutting his car door and throwing his messenger bag over his shoulder before walking in the house. "I'll be out in a minute."

Vince didn't wait for a reply before closing the door and walking to his room, throwing his bag on his desk and changing into another outfit he was more comfortable getting dirty in, tucking his necklace into his shirt. He sighed as he stared at himself in the mirror. What was he supposed to tell his father? "Sorry I didn't show up after school today, I had to go meet these giant alien robots, and one is also my guardian, who happens to be the leader of these said robots."

He ran a hand through his hair in annoyance. He wasn't that great at coming up with lies on the spot, but at least he was better than Jack. He knew Jack had been lying to him about a few things, but never thought this was the reason why. He groaned and set his forehead against the wall a bit in thought. Tutoring, maybe? No, when did he ever go to tutoring? He wouldn't be caught dead there. Besides, he wasn't stupid, but wasn't amazingly smart either. Maybe he just said Ryan had hung out with him and he couldn't shake him until now. That could work. It had happened before. Ryan was a good friend, but sometimes he didn't know how to shut up. He sighed and walked out and back to the garage, spotting his dad under the car again.

"We need to talk, Vince."

"Yeah."

"I know you didn't make curfew last night."

"Yeah," he repeated, remembering the night. That might be all his father remembered. He wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to ask.

"So, why were you late?"

"Uh, Ryan again. He started talking to me about various subjects and, uh, I couldn't get rid of him."

"Various subjects, huh?"

"Uh, yeah. One of them was about cars," he replied waving his hand in the air in gestures as his other arm rested against a work desk in the garage.

"Pass me a ratchet, will you?"

"W-what?" he replied, straightening up.

"Ratchet. You know, the tool. Not the alien robot you met today."

"What?" Vince exclaimed.

"What?" his father replied, rolling out from under the car again.

"What did you say?"

"The ratchet. The medium one, pl-oh, nevermind, I'm already right here." he sighed in slight exasperation, reaching over to the toolbox by him and pulling one out before disappearing under the car again.

Vince shook his head and was relieved his father didn't see him so flustered. Why was this bothering him so much already? He only met them once, well, technically twice. He needed to get a grip on himself. His father hadn't said anything about robots. He imagined that. He facepalmed in exasperation.

"So, Vince, about last night."

Vince stiffened slightly before sighing. "Yeah?"

"Please don't tell me you were racing again."

Vince hesitated, and his dad seemed to tell he was about to try and pull some elaborate lie.

"Vincent," his dad said warningly.

"Okay. Okay! Yes, I was. I just-"

"Vincent, we've talked about this!" he pulled himself out from under the car again to face him. At this rate, he wouldn't ever finish the car. "I have seen the result of high-speed collisions. Cars don't even look like cars anymore, and no doubt the people inside those cars-"

"I know, I know," he sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and looking anywhere else but his father. The floor became very interesting all of a sudden, with all the grease spots and littered tools.

"Vincent, don't interrupt me!" he cried. He was angry, but not as angry as Vince knew he could get. He was more worried and it showed in his voice and his expression. He stopped talking for a minute and breathed in and out before walking over to his son.

"Look. I know I'm-"

"No. No, It's fine. We don't need to do this," Vince replied, moving away.

"Ever since-!" his father replied, but Vince shook his head.

"Please, don't. I don't want to hear it."

"Vincent."

"Dad..."

His father sighed in defeat. "Fine. But we're not done talking about your disobedience. You're grounded from your car for a month. If I see that car anywhere else but our driveway, there will be more severe consequences."

Vince knew what that meant. His car would be gone for good. He nodded.

"Alright. Come help me fix up this car."

Vince nodded again, sitting down next to his father as he made room for him. He decided to look out at his street before he went under the car and blinked as a red and blue semi drove past.

"Vince, one more thing," his father said, turning to look at his son. Vince jumped.

"Oh, um, yeah?" he replied, turning to face him. His father gave him a suspicious look but didn't comment on it.

"Answer my texts next time."

"Right," Vince replied, laying down and scooting himself in.

~~~

I like writing this book. It's an interesting take on the Prime series. I've noticed that that series pays more attention to the Cybertronians than the humans, as the humans are sometimes not in the episodes at all whereas in Rescue Bots it's focused more on the human and rescue bot relationship. So I think it's interesting to delve into the "human" side of TFP, where, even though the human and autobot relationship was a thing for a while, it can be a thing again with Optimus and Vince, though emphasized. Though, the Decepticons will of course still be messing around as always. :> But I always thought it would be interesting for the kids to react to the autobots and see them in their point of view while dealing with the battle that is of being a teenager. Not that I'd want an entire series based on that (it's called Transformers Prime, not Humans Prime), but that's what fanfiction is for. If this makes sense to any of you guys, bravo, and I hope I can pull this book off well for you. Thanks for reading. :>

-BP